Sam's First Communion

Sam took a very special step in our church today. He received the sacrament of First Holy Communion for the first time! He wasn't that excited about it ahead of time, but once he got all dressed up in his suit and started walking down the aisle, he had the biggest smile! We thought it was so cute that he got matched up with our good friends (Max and Delia's) daughter Maggie to walk down the aisle with. It was a very special day!

Sam sitting in the pew with his buddies right after he took communion for the first time.

The Group Photo
One of the disadvantages of having tall kids is that they are always in the back row.

A picture of the whole first communion class,

almost all of them were second graders.

Sam's best buddies in first communion class are my good friend Aine's twin boys Declan and Tidgh (they are very Irish). He loves them so much and he ended up looking forward to class on Monday nights so he could see them.

I didn't get a great shot of Maggie and Sam walking down the aisle together (darn camera) so I made them pose together outside afterwards for this picture. They were sooooo cute together!

The proud parents!

Good Job Sammy, We LOVE You!

The Party After!!!

Grammy and Papa with Sam on his special day!

Christy, Natalie (christy's daughter), Me & Mom

The Kids Table

My Mom made all of the delicious food. . .Thanks Mom!

Liz and Me

Sam had so much fun being the center of attention and opening up his presents.

Sam, Lucy and Ellie (Liz's daughter)

Sam LOVED his Jesus Action Figure from Aunt Kate and Uncle Kev.

What else would you get Sam for his first communion? . . .It was perfect!

A Tribute to BABS

We had to put our 14 year old dog Barbara "Babs" to sleep last Wednesday. My dad actually came over to our house to take her away to the vet (THANK YOU DAD!!!) This is a picture of Lucy saying goodbye. I was doing just fine with it, until I saw Lucy crying and begging us not to put her to sleep! That was the saddest part! The kids and I left for school and then my dad took her to the vet. The boys said a quick goodbye as they were walking out the door, and Lucy cried for about 10 min in the car. I was a little sad, and then I went in and looked at the 25 pee stains on my carpets and I was OK with it. We got our carpets cleaned the next day. Lets just say that we loved Babs but it was definitely time for her to go. Thank You for being a great family Dog Babs . . . I hope that you are having fun, playing in heaven with the other doggies, like I told LUCY!

Girls Weekend!

Liz, Me & Christy

Amie(holding Dominic), Sheri, Brandy, Sandy, Christy, Me, Leticia and Genevieve

"The Girls" soaking up the beautiful sunshine out on the deck.

Magazines, wine, laughs, good friends. . .I love girls weekends!

What a fun relaxing weekend! We all headed up to Crescent Lake on Friday evening, where we stayed at Amie and Mike's beautiful cabin. We had so much fun together, what a wonderful group of friends. We even got some scrapbooking in, between the wine drinking and chatting. The two babies that tagged along (Genevieve and Dominic...out token "dude") were so cute and so much fun to pass around. It was all over too fast though. Can we start a "girls week" tradition next year?

A Very Quiet Easter

Decorating Eggs!

Lucy had Princess Eggs, Sam had Kung Fu Panda Eggs and Max had Sports Eggs.

Messy but FUN!

Lucy with her basket. . .age 5.

Sam on Easter Morning . . . age 8.

Max, somehow always finds the most eggs . . . age 9.

Max, finding the golden egg!

Actually this year we did three golden eggs after a fight last year!

The "hunt" is on!

Dividing up and trading candy - a very important part of the Easter egg tradition.

Pancho, waiting for the perfect opportunity to begin swiping from the kids baskets.


Easter was very quiet this year, just our little family and Grammy and Papa. We usually spend Easter with my brothers and their families, but since they all came down here last weekend for Kate & Kev's Baby Shower, we decided to just call that our family Easter. So this weekend was very relaxing and restful. After our Egg Hunt and Church, we went over to mom and dads where we had a delicious Easter Dinner and watched The Sound of Music, I love that movie! It was fun to watch it with my kids, they really liked it too! So all in all it was a pretty quiet weekend, but those are the best ones sometimes.

Family Pictures

I wish that we would have had someone to take a picture of all 5 of us together,

but these pictures turned out pretty good for us!

We've been working on getting our backyard ready for summer.

We just took the furniture and cushions out!

Come on Summer!!!!

Sam's Braces (braces round 2)

So proud of his new braces and his free t-shirt from Dr. White (at least something is free)!

Oh wait, I am sure that we are paying for that too!

Yes, I guess that there is no denying that he needs braces.

Max got his off about a month ago, now we are starting the next year and a half of Sam's Braces. We will be paying for these things for the next few years!!!

(Do I sound bitter?)

Oh Yes, and did I mention that Max has already lost his retainer?

Thats $250.oo! It's coming out of his account (he has his own business and money already).

Yes, we are mean parents! Responsibility - its a tough lesson to learn!

Tea Party

Me and my sweet girl.

I LOVE doing girlie girl stuff, so I am so happy when I can talk her into doing something like this with me!

She would usually rather be doing what her brothers are doing.

Storefront window of Ruthie B's in Springfield.

Lucy tried tea for the first time . . . not her thing.

Lulu loves her Grammy!!!

Lucy looked so cute in this hat!

3 generations of Murray Girls!

Lucy doesn't have preschool on Thursdays. I had originally thought that this would be so much fun because she and I could spend our Thursdays doing fun mother-daughter stuff together. Yeah Right! We have spent most Thursdays running errands or cleaning the house and watching Spongebob. So I have made a new pledge to spend our Thursdays making memories. Life is too short! So I asked her if she wanted to have a Tea Party and finally she said YES! Probably because her brothers weren't around. She has turned me down many times before. So we called up Grammy and invited her to our little "girls day out". We had so much fun at Ruthie B's. Lucy didn't really like the tea, but she liked everything else and we all three had so much fun wandering through the antiques, when we were finished eating. There are so many cool and unique things there! We all three decided that we need to have tea parties more often . . .

So Fun!

Aunts, Uncles and Cousins!

Max has always wanted to be an engineer like his Uncle Kevin, so he was so proud to show him this huge tower that he built out of these snap together toys that Grammy has at her house.

My niece Annie 2 1/2 years old! She's sooooo cute!



When we got home from the Baby Shower, we saw this in our living room!

Then we saw this inside . . . all of the cousins sleeping in their fort!

Some cousin fun in Grammy and Papas Hot Tub!

Aunt Kate, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Sean and Aunt Francine.

Grammy made us a delicious Brunch for Kevin's Birthday.

The Cousins and Uncle Sean.

A street soccer game in front of our house.

"The Rockers"

Our kids really do have a cousin band called The Rockers. It is so cute! Every time we all get together, the adults are "treated" to a show put on by "The Rockers". They even have a theme song called "The Rockers" that has 2 words that they sing over and over for about 10 minutes. It is always cute for about a minute or so, and then there are usually about 18 minutes left to (endure) go in the show. Luckily Pancho usually keeps us entertained with inappropriate comments under his breath, Ahhh such fun memories!